British Columbia

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Fort Nelson to Just Shy of Liard Hotsprings

Oh, Thursday finally brought what I’d been dreaming of, a land of barren snowy peaks, spruce-covered mountains, frozen lakes, turquoise streams, miles of wilderness between services, and encounters with wildlife.

First stop on Thursday was Fort Nelson. I filled up and then stopped at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. There is not much RV parking at the museum. When entering, do not make the mistake I did and turn right into the paved area. First of all, it is a dump and water fill up station, so you don’t want to block it, and second, there is very little room to turn around. With Miranda and the toad, I literally did not have an inch to spare. Instead, just follow the dirt driveway as it loops around and park where there is space on the side.

The museum is full of wonderful artifacts about Fort Nelson’s history and that of the Alaska highway. The staff is friendly and full of interesting trivia. I particularly enjoyed the tales of the gentleman who maintains the antique cars on display. They all run. One of the cars turn 100 last year so, to celebrate its birthday, he and his wife drove it to Whitehorse and back! Cars today just don’t last! Upon first glance, the museum and grounds seem very ‘junky’, but there is method and order to the chaos. A visit is definitely a ‘must’!

giant crayon at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum

giant crayon at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum

Coming out of Fort Nelson, there is a sign announcing that there are no services for 250km or so. The ‘real’ Alaska Highway begins!

30km from Fort Nelson, I had to make a choice that I had been agonizing over for weeks. I was about 130km from the border of the Northwest Territories. It was very tempting to turn, go to the border, have lunch at the rest stop there (very convenient), come back, and spend the night in Fort Nelson. But most of the road to to Fort Liard, NWT, is gravel and there was a forecast of snow.  So, I knew I’d be encountering mud and potholes and potentially vehicle-damaging conditions. I decided not to make the detour.

I stopped for lunch at Steamboat Mountain (apparently the mountain looks like a Steamboat, but I couldn’t see it). It was very cold and wet up there, but the views were fantastic!

view from Steamboat Mountain rest area

view from Steamboat Mountain rest area

I passed a herd of caribou a short while down the road:

herd of caribou

herd of caribou

I stopped again at Summit Lake, the highest point on the Alaska highway:

Summit Lake

Summit Lake

I continued on past one breathtaking peak after another only to be stopped by the last thing I expected to stop me in the middle of the wilderness:

the wilderness red light district?

the wilderness red light district?

The gal at the Fort Nelson Museum told me that I had to stop and take in the view at Muncho Lake, so I did:

Muncho Lake

Muncho Lake

The lake was frozen, but there was enough thaw near shore for me to realise that Muncho Lake is bright blue-green in summer.  So, this might seem like a picture of any other lake, I have a feeling the ice is hiding a real jewel.

The Alaska Highway follows the curve of the lake, so RVers, be prepared to take things slow and to stay as far right in your lane as possible!

I then began to look for a place to spend the night and was suddenly besieged with the sight of something I had never thought I would see in the wild. Let me add a sidebar here that my favourite movie of all time is ‘Dances With Wolves.’ The main character, Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, is heading out into the frontier to see it before it’s gone and there is one animal he is anxious to see, the mighty ‘tatanka’:

Yes, folks, that's a buffalo. There was a herd of them, but this picture came out best.

Yes, folks, that’s a buffalo. There was a herd of them, but this picture came out best.

Thank you to the folks in the car behind me for stopping and therefore, giving me permission to stop too.

I was seriously running out of steam by this point and it was already 4PM (which surprised me!). I was faced with another decision: continue to Liard Hotsprings and spend the night at the campground there (17$ and no hookups) or stop before the springs (free) and pay the day use fee Friday (5$). I chose the latter, stopping at a gravel turnoff with great views just 9km from the springs.

view from my livingroom on Thursday night

view from my livingroom on Thursday night

I knew that Friday night would have to be on hookups, so it just didn’t make sense budget-wise, to pay for a non-hookup site. Two days is just about as long as I can go on my battery. What about the generator, you say. Well, let’s just say that my genset was working just fine when it was tested in Vancouver and was very useful at the Chasm, but it will no longer start. I really don’t think I’m meant to boondock. 🙁

That downer aside, Thursday was a nice , quiet evening. I had bought a book about the Chilkoot Pass history at the Fort Nelson Museum, so I read until the book was done. It was 9:30 and still bright day light out. Thankfully, the loft area is fairly dark, so I was able to conk out in short order.

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Dawson Creek to Just Shy of Fort Nelson

Wednesday wasn’t a very memorable driving day. I set off in snow and very cold conditions that were not conducive to stopping. I had hoped to take the ‘old’ Alaska highway to the curved wooden bridge over the Kiskatinaw River, but the turn off was onto a muddy road. I was worried about getting stuck and decided this would be a stop for the return journey.

Similar story at Charlie Lake where the entrance to the memorial was closed. It was at Charlie Lake that twelve soldiers were killed in a sudden squall. They had attempted to cross the lake with an overloaded pontoon filmed with supplies for the building of the Alaska highway. Five men were heroically saved by a local trapper.

Charlie Lake

Charlie Lake

I gassed up in Fort St John and then stopped at ‘Suicide Hill’ a very steep section of road on the original Alaska Highway that was prefaced with a sign that said Prepare to meet thy maker!

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I stopped for the night at a turnout about 30km shy of Fort Nelson. I did about 400km, none of which were particularly inspiring. In this stretch of the Alaska Highway, services are still quite close together and the land is very open. I’ve felt more isolated en route to the Ottawa airport!

overnight at a turnoff about 30km from Fort Nelson

overnight at a turnoff about 30km from Fort Nelson

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A Threat Made Reality

snow

It’s minus two here in Dawson Creek and supposed to snow through to Thursday, but it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow. The forecast in Fort St John is slightly better, but none of the RV parks are open. I’ve therefore decided to stay one more night in Dawson Creek, overnight in Fort St John tomorrow, and then take advantage of the two days of clear weather we’re supposed to get to find someplace cheap to hunker down for a bit if needed.

The Alaska Highway Adventure has begun.

(I still need to go out at some point today; I’m out of coffee!)

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First Enjoyable Bike Ride

It’s a long weekend here in British Columbia, so I suspected that Canadian Tire would have a major sale on outdoorsy stuff. I therefore waited to purchase my missing kayak and bicycle accessories.

The Canadian Tire in Dawson Creek didn’t have everything I wanted in stock, but I was very happy with what they did have, being able to finish kitting out my bike at rock bottom prices. As for the kayak, I scored a life vest at a great price, but I’m still up the creek without a paddle! I’ll try the one in Fort St John tomorrow and if that doesn’t pan out (ooh, nice pun considering the road I’m on!) there’s always the one in Whitehorse where I could have the paddle I want brought in for me.

For the bike, what I needed most was a good pump. The few times I’d been out, the riding wasn’t enjoyable because of underinflated tires. I had a pump, but it was crap! This time, I got a really good pump, with a pressure gauge, for 60% off. The other item I got is very self-indulgent: a silicon seat cover!

I got home and decided to try out my bike on the Dawson Trail. Getting it out of the trunk was easier than I’d expected and getting the front wheel back on only took moments. The reverse was equally easy. Now that I know this, I won’t hesitate to take the bike out on those nights when I’m urban dry camping and want to explore.

The tires pumped and the gears lubricated, I set off for a short ride that turned out to be very enjoyable! What a difference properly inflated tires make! I am absolutely in love with this bicycle. It handles like a mountain bike but is lightweight like a racing model; the best of both worlds! I had no problem navigating gravel and potholes.

Here are some more pictures of the Dawson Trail:

Rotary Lake; Dawson Creek's manmade lake and popular swimming hole

Rotary Lake; Dawson Creek’s manmade lake and popular swimming hole

This charred area still has a very strong burn smell

This charred area still has a very strong burn smell

This sort of sky is apparently very common in Dawson Creek; the weather changes quickly and for short periods.

This sort of sky is apparently very common in Dawson Creek; the weather changes quickly and for short periods.

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The Alaska Highway

While being something of a WWII history buff, I’ve always focused on Europe with little attention paid to the conflict in the Pacific. So, a lot of what I’ve learned about the building of the Alaska highway surprised me. Of course, I take some of it with a grain of salt, recognizing the scent of American propaganda, but the facts are not in dispute.

First, let me comment on the various names this road has gone through, of them ‘AlaskaN highway’, ‘Alaska-Canada highway’, and ‘Alcan highway.’ The latter is my favourite as it seems more inclusive. But since the purpose of the exercise was to create an inland route to Alaska, I can accept the decision to go with ‘Alaska highway.’ 🙂

The Alaska highway was commissioned in 1942 a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. There was a very real fear that Japan would attack the west coast of North America. The Japanese even had an outpost just 700mi and change for the Aleutian Islands. The air route across Canada and into Alaska territory was unreliable as were the off shore sea routes. The Alaska highway would serve two goals: provide a secure overland route into the territory and reassure the American public that the Americans were doing everything possible to secure North America against the Japanese.

The building of this highway astounds me. It was done in eight months with very little planning by a team that had no experience in sub-arctic road construction, cold-weather survival, or heavy equipment handling. The American army engineers basically blasted their way through the wilderness and in doing so created a feat of engineering some say is only second to the building of the Panama Canal.

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Some 4,000 of the 11,000 men who built the highway were black, working in segregated troops under white commanders.

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These men worked against formidable prejudices–that they were too lazy, stupid, and unsuitable to cold climates to be of any use. Yet, they persevered in the hope that they would be rewarded with changed circumstances back home.

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Dawson Creek has a relatively new (2007) museum devoted to the building of the Alaska highway. It is located right behind the Mile 0 post that stands in the centre of the intersection of 10th Avenue and 102 Street. Admission is free. Plan an hour and a half to visit the museum in order to take in the 60 minute PBS movie about the building of the highway. This movie is peppered with commentary by actual engineers, both black and white, involved with the project. My favourite part of the museum was the showing of home movies by one of the engineers; they are in colour!

Today, the Alaska highway is shorter and straighter than it was back in 1942. It is paved and lined with all the comforts and trappings of civilization. And, yet, it is still synonymous with adventure.

A friend said to me, about being at Mile 0, that I must be ‘vibrating.’ Oh, yes. Very much so. 🙂